Beetlejuice - NES

Based on the 1988 film (not the animated TV series), this game combines side-view platforming and top-view based action. It was made by RARE.

The premise of the film follows a ghost named Beetlejuice as he helps a newly-dead couple to scare a new family from the now dead couples former home. The game doesn't match this very well.

General notes

This game is very hard to play normally!

Optimizing the TAS itself was difficult as multiple route options exist for most stages, and enemy spawn points are RNG based (more obvious on top-down levels).

Side-scrolling levels are basic platforming consisting of timed jumping and the occasional attack. Sometimes the goal is to simply reach the exit. With others times, items need to be collected in the level to finish.

Top-view levels often have a mild adventure element in that you must find various objects to give to other people before a route will open to the exit. On a few occasions all the enemies must be scared (killed) before you can exit through the door.

Stage Specifics

What I call a stage is the given portion of the game between views of the in game map, not on the breakdown given in the game manual. I further subdivide stages into multiple parts by how many screen blackouts there are for the stage (with the exception of shops/beetle holes).

Stage 1 - The town.

Part 1 - Get the key. Unlock the building.

Part 2 - Run through the building turning off switches and searching for the Book for the Recently Deceased.

While it's possible to get through the light beams at the beginning in one pass with properly timed input, I opted not to do this for multiple reasons.

Obtains the invulnerability flower near the first switch. This allows for quicker movement through the rest of the building. A second flower is obtained near the Book for the Recently Deceased protecting from the enemy at the exit.

The timing with this method yields more optimal position of the cloud lifts.

Part 3 - Traverse the rooftops and clouds to reach the garage.

A brief dip into the beetle hole is used to obtain vouchers to purchase scares.

Part 4 - BOSS - A man (gardener?) with a bug-sprayer is in the garage.

Stage 2 - The Sewers.

Part 1 - Platforming through the sewers.

A damage boost is used to reach a platform at the far left edge of the level (frame 6424) which also stops the beetle's motion allowing for faster screen scrolling than hopping to the platform and hopping again to doge the beetle. The screen only scrolls vertically when you're standing on something.

Part 2 - BOSS - A football player kicks balls at you. (Why is there a football player in the sewer?)

Stage 3 - The Basement. This is the first top-down scene and is only one screen.

Part 1 - Get a scare. Get the key. Exit room.

Stage 4 - The House.

Part 1 - Get the key. Get a scare. Exit

Part 2 - Get to end of path. Avoid floating door to the Netherworld.

Part 3 - Kill enemies. Get Book. Give book to Barbara. Leave

Part 4 - Get Key. Leave.

Part 5 - Gotta kill the enemies with the hammer. Leave.

Part 6 - Get to end of path.

Part 7 - Gotta kill the enemies, get the key, and exit.

The toilet paper can be acquired, but I have no idea what it is supposed to be used for.

Stage 5 - The Attic.

Part 1 - Get Key. Open Door. Get Scare. Leave.

Part 2 - Get to exit.

Part 3 - Get Fire Extinguisher. Put out Fire. Get Flyswatter. Get Spraycan. Give Spraycan to Otto. Leave.

Part 4 - Kill the flies. Leave.

Part 5 - Get rubber duck. Give duck to Charles. Leave

Parts 6-8 - Get key. Get out.

Part 9 - Get the mouse. Leave room by scaring kid with the mouse.

Part 10 - Get through.

Part 11 - Get ring. Give ring to . Double teleport & Dance to avoid flys. Give ring to Lydia to open path. Get Key. Get Glasses. Exit.

Stage 6 The Graveyard.

Part 1 - Platform to tower entrance.

Part 2 - Platform up through the tower to get the chalk.

Part 3 - Platform to 2nd tower.

Part 4 - BOSS - Wizard who shoots lightning at you.

Stage 7 Back in the Attic.

Part 1 - Give glasses to guy to exit.

Part 2 - Use teleports to reach and kill enemies. Teleport to get key. Exit.

Stage 8 The Waiting Room to the Afterlife.

Part 1 - Collect the numbers 1-6 and exit.

Final Thoughts

The last input is the last frame of input necessary to exit the final stage.

feos: First of all, this goal is unvaultable, so if such a run is poorly received, it can't go to Vault or Moons, hence it gets rejected. Now in details.

This run is labeled as "No Warp Glitches", and its counterpart as "Warp Glitches", and strictly speaking, the difference between them is indeed in the approach to that particular glitch. But that is not the same situation as we have with what we exclusively call the "warp glitch" branch. Such a branch involves a game breaking glitch, which, by its definition, cuts the time down dramatically compared to a run that avoids such glitch, and also involves elaborate techniques like memory corruption. Then the gameplay difference becomes obvious, and people use to prefer both branches being published: the "glitched" one, and "any%".

With this game, there's no known way to break it that hard, and the glitch avoided in this run is not game-breaking. It's just a basic out-of-bounds technique commonly used in regular "any%" runs. Moreover, it's so basic that it doesn't feel like a different category run when you avoid it, it's just a speed-entertainment trade off. Indeed, both runs look identical except for the parts where the glitch is avoided, which adds some couple of minutes of gameplay. But it's still basically the same contents, unlike in games that allow different characters or different amount of them, where each option has unique elements not present in counterpart runs. Then we publish two comparable runs alongside each other, instead of having one that's dramatically faster and one that offers more gameplay.

Rejecting for goal choice, as this run doesn't differ enough from its counterpart, and also got really poor feedback.

Note about the other run: if it's accepted, it shouldn't be labeled "warp glitch" because of the above reasons; it's just an "any%" run.